Edinburgh Disneyland
The idea of Edinburgh as just an advertising space that you literally project commodities onto couldn’t be more apt. But for those of us (and there are many) who have been warning of the gross commodification of public space, the massive costs of over-tourism and the social cleansing that this process involves, are still amazed at the idea of using Edinburgh Castle as an advertising hoarding.
The Herald tells us: “To celebrate the grand opening of Universal Epic Universe on May 22, Universal Orlando Resort will illuminate Edinburgh Castle with a world-class projection display to showcase the five immersive worlds of their newest theme park.
On Friday May 2 at 9pm, in a historic first, Edinburgh Castle will turn into an awe-inspiring canvas for a Universal Epic Universe themed projection mapping and lighting experience.
Innovative techniques will complement the aesthetics of the five astounding worlds that can be found within the theme park – Celestial Park, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™ – Ministry of Magic™, SUPER NINTENDO WORLD™, How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk and Dark Universe.”
I mean, Edinburgh is effectively already a “Wizarding World of Harry Potter™” but what this is is turning a historic site, in a Unesco World Heritage city into a themepark advert.
Cool.
Alison Montague, Vice President International Sales & Marketing EMEA, said: “We are delighted to partner with Historic Environment Scotland who have entrusted us with Edinburgh Castle, a globally recognised icon and one of the most important symbols of Scottish history and culture. Edinburgh Castle is a testament to the power of cultural imagination and forms a fantastic backdrop for us to bring to life the five worlds of Epic Universe.”
“Transporting fans into the worlds of Epic Universe sits at the heart of this projection and we can’t wait to for the people of Scotland and beyond to experience the thrills of this brand-new theme park.”
We already live in a ******* theme park thanks Alison, but I do love the idea of “cultural imagination”. Would love to see some exercise by, I don’t know, Historic Environment Scotland?
Way back in 2018 Gordon Robertson, chair of Marketing Edinburgh, elected by nobody, called for the “Disneyfication of Edinburgh”. He’s got his way now, the process is virtually complete. Never mind the people of Dumbiedykes, or the Old Town, or the wider city. You might not have a home or a library, or a nursery, or a functioning neighbourhood but you could win a trip to visit an actual themepark.
The details are hilarious: “Guests in attendance will have a chance to win a seven-night trip to Universal Orlando Resort including tickets to all four of their theme parks – including Universal Studios Florida, Universal Islands of Adventure, Universal Volcano Bay and the brand-new Epic Universe. They will stay at the recently opened, Universal Terra Luna Resort!”
A first-class flight to Trumpland, what could be better? Anyone heard of climate change?
There’s more:
“The Universal Epic Universe projection stunt is a free ticketed private event with very limited capacity. To apply for tickets, visit here to find the event listing, then follow instructions to apply.”
Translated, this means that the city will be again boarded off to, you know, actual residents, and you’ll have to pay to look at the castle (!).
Back to the aforementioned Gordon Robertson who explained the process of Disneyfication eight years ago (The Disneyfication of Edinburgh): “Having been in Disney this year with my family, I’m not so sure Disneyfication is a bad thing? At least they’ve invested in their sites, they have a plan, it provides thousands of jobs, their well-trained staff provide a fantastic experience and they’re extremely profitable which is used to invest back into the product.”
This is a city, nominally your city he’s describing.
As I said years ago, the process of Disnyefication of Scotland’s capital city is enhanced by its location within a country already suffering from Brigadoonism and advanced self-colonisation. Disneyfied Edinburgh happens in the country of the See You Jimmy Hat.
Efforts to resist this process have been long and hard. Campaigners led by Jim Slaven recently fought to keep open the People’s Story, the only museum dedicated to the actual people of Edinburgh. As Slaven put it about the recent developments:
“Edinburgh: from “hotbed of genius” to tartan Disneyland. A soulless, hollowed out shell of a place. A city destroyed by a political class corrupt & incompetent in equal measure. In future it will be a case study in how not to manage social change.”
Way back in 2016 citizens tried to organise against the new Virgin 6 Star Hotel behind Central Library. They wrote then (Who Really Owns the City?):
“Edinburgh exemplifies how cities have become the space in which the politics of austerity and debt are played out. Public assets are sold for insensitive, speculative projects, and a good example of this situation is the recent approval of the construction of a new hotel in the Cowgate.”
“This will have a massively detrimental impact on the Central Library and the local area. The original intention for this piece of land was to be used for an extension of the Central Library in a way that would firstly respect the architecture of this building, and secondly re-visit its importance as a vital 21st-century cultural hub – a space open to everyone, free of charge and a shelter for those that have nowhere else to go, study, read, and find some peace. Libraries are under threat everywhere in the UK and also in Scotland, where cuts to services and staff are putting huge limits to the services libraries are meant to support.”
The process of needless gentrification, and its sisters Disneyfication and Over Tourism have had a profound impact on Edinburgh’s housing situation. Back in 2016 it was noted:
“To address the homelessness crisis, there is a desperate need for more genuine social housing for rent. From 58,000 council tenancies in the late 1970’s, there are now less than 20,000 council homes in Edinburgh. The so-called regeneration of areas like Greater Pilton is actually resulting in a massive privatisation of housing stock. The new 21st Century Homes development in Muirhouse/ Pennywell plans for 30 per cent proper Council tenancies, 50 per cent private homes for sale, and 20 per cent “mid-market” rent which is unaffordable for those on benefits or low wages. This plan is rightly being opposed by groups like North Edinburgh Housing Action Group. Other campaign groups all over Scotland and the UK are also involved in such struggles.”
Since then, the housing crisis has only got much worse.
The (sometimes) clandestine forces that run Edinburgh have effectively won. That this latest, and most crass display has just been announced, there has been little public reaction. This speaks to a country that has no real cultural voice or integrity. Historic Environment Scotland are a disgrace, but they operate within a culture and a system where the assumption is that this nation and its capital are effectively tourist zones, and the decimation of industry and the lack of real control over the economy creates a doom loop of assumptions and power. A Dark Universe indeed.
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Oh joy.
I can’t wait for the public hangings at the Old Tolbooth and The Mercat Cross
Gordon,HES, all need dirk- despatched- what a nightmare vision- makes my west-coast gorge rise. They do it because they can…
Wee sleekit, cooerin beastie , what else do you have up your sleeve to add to the millionaires playground. How long will it be before we have public floggings for their entertainment !!
My family are from Edinburgh. Been here since at least the early 19th Century. It’s my home, where I grew up. I hate seeing what they have done and are doing to my home city. Often I feel I don’t belong here. I often feel I don’t recognise it. They create a false image of “tradition” while wiping away tradition. A case in point. Hogmaney. The bells were always seen in outside the Tron Kirk. Probably because it had a clock and in times past not many did. My ancestors probably saw the bells in there. Doing the same was a way I was connected to my ancestors and what they did. Now they have invented this “tradition” that it’s in Princesz St! The fact that it never was but at the Tron Kirk perhaps indicates how old that tradition us. It was probably happening at the Tron Kirk before Princes St and the New Town were built. Robert Ferguson would have known it there. Burns if in Edinburgh at Hogmaney. Now it’s ignored. A small comfort was that the Tron Kirk was just outside their cordoned off area. Now it is in. So that is a good example of the way they are ignoring and and having no respect Edinburgh folk from their history, from their traditions and now literary barricading us off from our history and traditions. We, the genuine folk of Edinburgh, are no longer residents of the place because I can say it’s a place I’ve never known and do nit recognise.
I don’t want to live in a theme park or manufactured fairy tale!
Scotland is being turned into a theme park……..I HATE IT
That 2018 speech from Gordon Robertson is marvellous. “None of us want to live in a theme park, but I think that with a better conversation and smarter thinking we can decide on the right balance.”
Of course when he says “us” and “we”, presumably he meant representatives of the tourism industry, not anyone living in the theme park.
If you don’t like Edinburgh why don’t you live in Aberdeen?
Flip’nfrivolous don’t cut it- eejit!
The whole concept of the theme park is pretty grim in the first place, so artificial, bloated and shallow. Read the books and imagine, that is where the creative power truly lies. The films at least don’t pretend ‘reality’. And the theme park is so obviously about a ‘franchise’ and money, ‘products’, art as ‘content’. A friend has studied the Harry Potter place in the US, been there, and showed some videos of it – some of the things actually going on it were not bad – artists trying to earn a living (e.g. some of the live music imagined to be in HP) but overall, it all feels so plastic and American and quite alien to the original conception and idea.
Translating the theme park idea to an actual place people live, a place of such depth as Edinburgh is little short of disgusting. It turns Edinburgh as a vital (Scottish) existential concept into a kind of corporate cash cow, its residents theme park players necessary to add a bit of gritty reality but otherwise expendable and irrelevant.
One thing – given the elevation of the castle how will they really prevent non-ticket holders from seeing the projections? What is the point of the free tickets anyway?
There is more than enough local history and culture in Edinburgh without requiring Disneyfication of city. In saying that there was always a fair bit of tourist tartan tat sold on High Street but it does seem bizarre that because the books were written in Edinburgh this seems to have turned parts of Edinburgh into a Harry Potter theme park. Nothing personal against books or films but they seem more representive of the English public school system and have little relevance to Scottish society or Edinburgh apart from author living in Scotland at time of writing.
English public boarding school definitely and tangentially in the lineage of Bunter, Jennings kids stories, but I supposed the ancient ‘gothic’ grandeur of Edinburgh combined with its darker, grimy aspects had an impact too, must have rubbed off on her.
Tourist tat is not uncommon in many places but that mostly seems to be sold by small time people eeking out a living and though tacky is hardly an issue. It is the megarcorps and the huge power they weald that is so maddening. They seem unstoppable and the stench of arrogant (political) corruption is suffocating, like the backstory of one of Rankin’s Rebus novels. Mind you, much of recent politics in Scotland is a bit like that. Accountability is irrelevant.
“That this latest, and most crass display has just been announced, there has been little public reaction.”
Worth looking up Gramsci’s ‘Cultural Hegemony’ to, partly explain this.
And people are tired, shattered, after 45 years of neo-liberal capitalism: viz the rise in mental and physical health issues (UK as well as Scotland) – your RW punters will, naturally, accuse them of scrimshanking.
Criticise what has happened to this beautiful city these past 30 years and back comes the mantra: jobs, influx of money, businesses, tourists.
While I welcome a certain proportion of tourists (been one myself elsewhere) to this most fascination of cities, I regularly walk my dog down the High Street and it’s just fucking weird.
It is weird.
This is a grotesque failure of stewardship by Historic Environment Scotland. Katerina Brown and the entire Board should resign. The accountants and other superannuated corporate types should be sent packing for good. Some of those with a background in built heritage may merit reappointment.
Check their schooling- self explanatory….